Golden Deer Pub Community Forums

Love-pang. Guh, oww!

I love you too.

@commute

Well my options look something like this:

pay $1000-12000 to live with stranger(s) very close to my office in the middle of DC, where I won't have any friends and will have a hard time getting in and out of the city to see them. All metro commute under 20 minutes. Shared bathrooms, with strangers, no room for my car (which I will need to visit Mr Kino on weekends), no room for guests, crowded kitchen, awkwardness of strangers, etc.

pay $750-900 to live with strangers outside the city but within the beltway where I'll need to drive 10-15 to a metro station for another 20-25 minutes by subway commute (30-40 minute total commute). Friends will be 30-45 minutes away by car. Again awkwardness, no room for guests, etc.

pay $850-1000 to live by myself in an efficiency/studio. 30-40 minute commute. Crushing loneliness. Despair. Starvation. Death.

pay $600-700 to live with my friend in fujoshi kitty paradise. Be within 10 minutes of another friend, who is in fact my roommate's best friend, enabling us to slumber-party and hang out constantly. I'll have access to 2 kitties. Roommate will share all my geeky yaoi passions. Full un-awkward access to entire apartment. Plenty of room for if I want to have guests over. Someone to eat food when I cook dinner. I'll be able to start moving up possessions and furniture for when Mr Kino joins me in June. Downside? 80 minute commute that is about 60 minutes of train and a bit extra of getting to the train station, metro-connection from train station to office, and a but of walking to the office.

But! When I'm home, I have instant access to kitties and a friend. I have fast access to the interstate to visit Mr Kino.

I'll be able to read on the train, or write, or do whatever. Sure, it'll suck, but it's only for the 5-6 months until my husband moves up here. Also, once I'm trained, I can likely telecommute a few days a week, so conceivably I'd only have to commute into DC 3 days a week.

I've evaluated all my options, and this is the best one.

Sounds like some good times are ahead for a certain Kino. I'm happy for you. ^3^

I assumed it was a typo.

^ Ah.

^ You should eat DC.

In capitalist America, DC eats you.

Pretty much. Housing costs are ridiculous in the DC area.

o_o wow... those are... wow... prices... my sister when house hunting typically looks for 600-700 with the potential for a roommate joining to help with costs. Wow. I can see why your choices are limited.

Real estate in and around D.C is pretty valuable, considering the number of important government offices and support services located there, as well as the tourism industry, so I'm actually not surprised by those prices.

Seattle is basically around $500-800 per person for shared living spaces, and super dependent on what area you live in and what you're looking for, but reasonable people will pay between $500-800 for a shared space, and probably $900-1300 for a place of their own. Im talking about average livings spaces, not upscale. My girlfriend and I have a 1 bedroom, its $1070 (with utilities) total, so we each pay $535. I used to live in a 5 bedroom with 4 other dudes, it was $2600 a month, without utilities, so we each paid $520 a month, that was a few years ago, I'm sure the place is up to about $3000 a month now.

I also lived in a 3 bedroom townhouse at the city limits, that was $1395 a month, so $465. That place was pretty nice, but as with most places in Seattle, the price goes down and the quality of the home goes up as you get further from downtown. Living anywhere near downtown guarantees either incredibly shitty, overpriced, dwellings, or ludicrously expensive, upscale ones. Thankfully I don't like living in dense parts of town, so I don't really run into this issue.

Other parts of Washington are much more reasonable.

It can seem pretty steep, but you have to remember that our minimum wage in Washington is $9.04/hour, increasing to $9.19 on the 1st of January, and we have no state income tax, so if you can control your sales tax eligible spending you're usually okay. My lowest wage while living in Seattle was $9.50/hr, back in 2008 when minimum wage was $8.07/hr, and I had no problem paying my rent/bills/food/beer expenses, but I had roommates. Things would have been MUCH tighter if I had been living alone.